Operation Clearout

I’ve been having a major library declutter over the last month or so. Call it a Majestic Work In Progress (it feels like it at times!).

I’ve thrown out lots and lots of duplicate copies of things that were much used when new and don’t require multiple copies any more.  Lots of journal issues of titles whose importance declines radically with age or can be accessed quicker electronically for less storage space. Lots of things that are too dated to remain but without going shelf by space, and without going item by item round the shelves, would probably have escaped attention for a while yet. I have scythed through what I have in off-site storage too while I was at it…

I have manhandled stock around to get things on shelves in the right places that wouldn’t fit before, or so that I can get things out of storage (hurrah!) onto that shelf I always envisaged for them in the correct place in the classification sequence. I have made space for 2013 to sit for all the continuing publications.

In this process - which involves some weeks of determined bravery, valour, many bin bags, and a lot of sitting down afterwards – in the shelves I’ve found baffling amounts of sweet wrappers (not mine, honest!) lurking behind books, all kinds of half-written abandoned notes (also not mine). I’ve removed scores of sticky tabs with scribbles on them from books by people who may, or may not, still be here.

This week in burrowing into the deep recesses of my drawer unit on Operation Clearout I have discovered everything from notepads from deceased organisations, to labels from ten years ago, to miscellaneous business cards from people long gone. I’ve found reference stickers yellowing around the edges, ink pads and stamps for previous incarnations of the firm….I’ve unearthed abandoned umbrellas…

Unless items have a current use reason to stay, need archived because it could need revisiting yet for a 'point in time' need re the law, or is retained because it has some other particular purpose (e.g. a corporate archive) - throw it out.

Preferably often so it feels less like a military exercise requiring a cardboard medal of distinction that has to be done in December with Xmas all around in order to get at it for long enough to do it.

Worth it though (grins).

Where are all the corporate archives?

 Using a company's history

There’s an article reprinted in the December 2012 issue of Harvard Business Review on benefits of using a company’s own history as a leadership tool which is an interesting read.

It argues that a company’s history has a real value in informing the present and future. These include helping to underpin group values and beliefs, in knowing the past in order to better formulate workable plans for the future, as a way of phrasing change has been successfully achieved before, etc etc. Things well beyond key dates and celebrations.

It gives seven tips for getting history on your side which are about maintaining corporate archives as a function to mine for it, and about what can be expected to resonate most within and outwith a company both to be valued from them.

There’s some classic KM and / or risk management, some are things associated with archives or information services if they’re also keeper of said, some are more usual as marketing function.

Corporate Archives

Musing on this all it occurs to me that a lot of corporate archives are very much historical in use– never used for anything current or real-time, more for selecting from at or near anniversary’s or when particularly long-standing members of staff retire when the hunt goes up for the ‘year one’ photo.

Also, the ‘archives’ of lots of companies are more implicit than explicit, you could say in classic KM-speak they’re more within the heads of some of the staff than they are recorded in written or photographic form. Even if they are it tends to be patchy.

Corporate archives is not something that cries out ‘Resource Me Urgently / Spend Time Here’.  Often it’s the dusty boxes or the files in the corner. Often they’re patchy and quite what collection management policy existed to construct the collection that does exist would be anyone’s guess, there is often no ‘formal’ designated keeper or policy re, no central place for. Because their relevance is under-valued for present business because there is often no one in the upper echelons seeking to link past with present and future using them as an aid.

Linking business future to archival knowledge

Which brings me to another couple of sentences from the article.

“For a leader then, the challenge is to find in an organization’s history its usable past.”

Now that’s intriguing for all kinds of reasons. Sifting, selecting with care, sieving through for the bit that speaks to now / the agenda under consideration. What is there in the past that can articulate the vision for this specific future being undertaken. How does it help make the argument.

“The reality is that we are all historians when it comes to making decisions.”

As to that line… well it’s true to an extent, we all base decisions on prior learning, knowledge, experience. Most of us build up some form of overall surrounding context that grounds us and helps us. But perhaps the short-term is appreciated more than the longer-term in timescales of what is deemed relevant, which is often about how current the information is perceived to be.

Lost and inaccessible knowledge

Corporate archives tend to get very short shift, even if they do in fact exist. Try getting ahold of any document in a hurry that is published by an organisation that no longer exists and it soon becomes very apparent how few merged institutions keep anything deemed superseded, old, out-of-date, and how inaccessible it can be and dependent on someone’s memory who was there before. That’s even more so when it comes to internal information. What happens to the archives of all those places that simply go out of existence?  Are they given to some other archive or institution? A few are. Is there anywhere that would be relevant? Not always. Very often for lots of practical factors they reside in the bin instead as people are in a hurry, don’t have room, time, don’t realise that superseded doesn’t mean irrelevant or useless. Even if donated, can that place then afford to keep them, to make them accessible and promote them? If kept in-house will anyone not within the company ever know they exist? There are endless issues with corporate archives.

Finding a present tense value in Corporate Archives

So it’s nice to read something arguing for the use and relevance of corporate history in general beyond the historical context.  Properly maintained corporate archives have a place within that I would argue.  And that would only realistically happen if the corporate archives were seen to have an internal present and future business use beyond internal event celebration season and any wider research and access agenda.

If not now, then when

The Amusements of Seasonal Advice

The last two weeks of any December are full of Seasonal Advice.

Start of December is more about how to sum up and analyse the year thus gone for clues as to where it went right / wrong / a bit wobbly for the odd 8 (days /  months / apply as suits).

Second Christmas Day is over it’ll go into the how to formulate New Year’s Resolutions that are do’able, keep’able, and won’t (probably) half kill you in the attempt or send you into weary despair as they unravel about February while seeming to dance a merry jig of ‘told you so’.

Safe to say December is full of advice on everything from how to survive the season to how to live a better life for ever and ever afterwards. It’s kind of impossible not to read at least a bit of it as it appears just within in the corner of your eye.

Applying Artifical Constructs to Reality

Of course a reasonable person might well point out that the difference between 31 December one year and 1 January the next is completely artificial, modern, made-up, a social norm we all collude in applying to ourselves to keep us all in synch with one another.

Plus new habits formed on the darkest days of the year in the middle of winter are utterly ‘bound’ to be troublefree and easy (ahem – not).

If not now, then when

However, that said, one thing I caught somewhere out oh the corner of my eye (could be a newspaper, or online variant, or a blog, no idea) basically just said -

“if not now, when would you do it”

Which I liked enough to put it on here. Because I’ve always thought that’s true.

The Horrors of 'Sometime becomes Never'

Because ‘sometime, never’ is very easy to fall into otherwise, and it lasts a very long time.

It’s quicker to do things than it is to not do them. Not doing is endless, runs mercilessly into the dim and distant future beshadowing it, becomes hugely wearisome. 

It's kinder to ourselves to just say 'am I seriously intending doing this or not, if I am what am I doing about it'.

Doing at least is defined, has progression, will reach an end-point, can  move on from.

Seasonal Felicitations to the BL

As always at this time of year I'm feeling grateful to the British Library who do some lovely ecards.

I appear to have been making great and splendiferous use of the science fiction 'Out of this World' range recently. For which ability I am very grateful.

As a service to harassed busy seasonal humanity I cannot rate these highly enough!

Though it would be nice if the Xmas range  could be re-instigated for next year.... Anything that sends a tonne of folk flocking to the BL website in relived gratitude at Xmas can't be a bad thing.

Public benefactors and The John Rylands Library

The John Rylands Library

The most gorgeous library I discovered this year was The John Rylands Library in Manchester.

 It was hosting an exhibition I wanted to see.  So I planned my visit and went for the exhibition primarily.

However, once there, the building and collection is fascinating, so I found myself exploring the building and library top to bottom and wandering round the exhibition on the history of the Library.



Never got around to blogging about it at the time but meant to. 

So in seasonal end of year miscellaneous catch-up mode this seems very appropriate to talk about…  I enclose lots of photos and a few thoughts on what interested and amused me most about it.

A Gorgeous Space

It  is architecturally utterly gorgeous over several floors, it’s an odd mix of gothic cathedral in look, but without the religious symbolism much.  So lots of stone vaulted spaces, incredibly intricate design work in wood in the ceilings and tiny design detail, and gargoyles and other statues abound.





Working Library

It's still a working library (main reading room photos above) as well as being open to the public, and it was indeed designed to be modern in its time (using electricity, not gas for example, as that was thought to be better for the books). These days it hosts most of the Special Collections of the University of Manchester Library. Which is what brought me down to see an exhibition partially consisting of works from its papyrus collection.

Public Benefactor



Enriqueta Rylands, main reading room



Also, it's really unusual. 

It was commissioned by Enriqueta Rylands as a Memorial Library for the people of Manchester to use. It's dedicated to the memory of her late husband.

It opened in the Deansgate area of the city as an independent charity in what was then a hugely industrial Manchester.

Building Issues

In some ways the story of the Library is incredibly modern.  It took a week to design it (though the design changed continually throughout the building process), but it took ten years to build it and open it in 1900.  There’s something hilariously funny but rather wonderful in a way about a week to design (we’d take years) but ten years to build (somehow that chimes with the modern age somewhat closer to home!!). You can sense the frustration, problems, time and energy, the love and sheer money involved,  just in those two figures.



Element from exhibition text on the Library



Charitable Status

The John Rylands Library was an independent charity for a very long time.  It didn’t merge with the University of Manchester Library till the 1970s.

Purpose

The evolution of libraries, how they came into being, and when, due to what factors…  Always interesting.  I like the fact that this is a huge library commissioned for a purpose, and it’s still a working library now in a very different age, but it still fulfils the original purposes intended, and it still benefits the people of Manchester and beyond as well as the academic community it is now part of.

Worth a visit

There’s regular tours, so if you happen to have a few hours unaccounted for in Manchester, go in, and have a look round.  It’s a rather amazing place.  Plus, it's always nice to grin at a nice big ediface of a card catalogue in nostalgia mode!



Memories of the Browne system abound!



From Shared Cultural Services to Wider Shared Services

A few weekends ago I was unexpectedly musing to myself on shared services while sitting under a replica cast of an italian classical frieze, eating chicken sandwiches -




Frieze element, Harris Museum Cafe



- and gazing into the central lending library through the door opposite. As you do...(!)

Main Lending Library



Indeed, I was in Preston! In the café, in the middle of the Harris Museum, that adjoins through open doors straight into the public library.


Lending Library doorway off the Cafe area



 



View through Lending Library door



Shared Cultural Services

All in all the set-up brought back to mind a visit to Leeds Central Library a couple of years back. Leeds Central Library adjoins onto the Tiled Hall (gorgeous café) and you walk straight through doors in the Art Gallery seamlessly into the Art Library. So it’s a quite similar feel to it as in Preston, only more so.

Of course it’s not to say similar things don’t sometimes happen my (Scottish) side of the border. The public library in the basement of GoMA (Gallery of Modern Art) is a few streets away from my own workplace for example…

So there is a bit of a tradition of large spacious public buildings grouping together various different cultural services under one roof for ease of access and to form convenient hubs. Also presumably assuming that folk who access one of the services are also likely to be users of at least some of the others.

To…. Shared Services

Shared services as commonly understood term has expanded in reach a bit recently though.

On the purely public sector side it’s become a lot more associated with a wider local government delivery agenda. That may encompass services from job centres to housing advice to local taxation to the library all in one fairly open-plan space. Staff may work between various parts of the Council rather than just within one domain such as the library service.

It’s also become more common parlance in cross-sector delivery agendas too. Shared spaces that deliver public and school library services for instance, or access initiatives that share resources between university and public libraries, or wider regional groups of library services.

So mostly what I found myself thinking about as I ate lunch and gazed through into the Library beyond is that shared services isn't really new in some aspects. The ambit and scope in some of the current applications has been widened hugely though.

Following or Being Followed?

It was commented to me last week that libraries appear to follow me around.

There’s a lot in that.

Never quite sure where the borderline between what I consciously seek out, and what inadvertently finds me, actually is though. Perhaps librarians are just dab hands at finding reference to libraries and librarians.  Or, then again, perhaps it is just an inevitable consequence of the fact that libraries permeate all area’s and walks of life.

So we’ll take the last five days in my life and just look at the ‘unintentional’ list – things not actively sought out.

Last Friday – The St Andrew's Day Lecture with Val Mcdermid at The Royal College of Surgeons in Edinburgh on use of forensics in her writing. 

In which she also talked a lot about libraries and the need to support them and their impact on her and her career, on writers generally, and for the economy through the publishing industry.  Shouldn’t really have surprised me as I know she is a great supporter of libraries, but I’d gone in more in corpses and forensics thinking mode.

Last weekend - I picked up a novel to read (almost finished). One of the Ian Rankin Inspector Rebus books. In which I was not remotely surprised to find central Edinburgh libraries and librarian characters featuring as they often permeate the books.

However, to the normal National Library of Scotland and Central Library and Edinburgh University Library he’d even managed to add in an oil rig library. Which I wasn’t quite expecting. Had a very daft thought that I really wished he’d described it rather than walked the characters through or past. Which triggered an equally daft notion that I’ve never been on an oil rig library.  Any descriptions of oil rig libraries anywhere I wonder? Never read one.

Start of this week - My other half took an urge to watch some Porridge (the classic BBC tv comedy series about prison life starring Ronnie Barker).

I found myself going “ah yes, I’d forgotten this is the episode he manages to land the job as Assistant Librarian through his schemes” as I watched him making somewhat unusual use of one Book Trolley and a copy of Little  Women as he trundled it through the prison hospital. I don’t THINK there’s ever an episode with him actually in Slade Prison Library. But I could be wrong…

[And wrong I was, various episodes in Season 2 feature Fletcher in the Prison Library and going about his related activities. Everything from trying to get through the chitty to buy 'The Great Escape' (denied) to ordering book of precise width to sort the Governor's ricketty bookcase. I was thinking that the whole losing the paint enough times not to have to paint the library isn't exactly something that comes up much in real life, and then I remembered various stories down the years fof ingenious librarian DIY skills to patch ail'ing buildings and changed my mind a bit....]

So, whether libraries find me or I find them… I’m not always very sure. They’re still utterly fascinating though, real or invented.

A Future for Special Libraries – Panel Discussion

Format

This free event was organised by SLA Europe and took place in the NLS Boardroom in Edinburgh on 3 October.  It comprised of around ten minute addresses by each of three speakers followed by questions from the floor. There was also a general introduction to SLA Europe and drinks reception after the main event. Fairly good turnout in audience for mid-week too.

Speakers

The Speakers were:

Louise Laidlaw (law firm sector)

Susan Mansfield (government sector)

John MacColl (academic sector)

Louise Laidlaw –

Was discussing that mastering technology was important, we were all doing the same things but in extremely different ways from the past through technology.  Technology had meant that there were increasingly specialist roles on offer within the profession. But it also meant that things like current awareness monitoring with the explosion of electronically accessible content had become nightmarish meaning there was much need for filtering.  Huge hardcopy libraries still existed with many materials not being available online or not commercially worthwhile to publishers to make available.  She believed that special libraries had undergone evolution in the way they delivered services and what they delivered, but we were still there to help our users.

Susan Mansfield –

Talked about how government had decentralised hugely and the move to knowledge hubs. There was increasing scrutiny and transparency as an agenda and citizen expectations of information had changed. There was no money and technology was being used to make information available. This meant integration between Information Technology and Information Services. There was a move towards discussion of ‘Big Data’. Those libraries that still existed were embedded within other teams it at all and not seen as important to be physical places. It was about managing internal content and the digitisation agenda (e.g. layering content to add value, making it available through all existing channels).  This had meant a step change in skills had been required with emphasis on transferable skills and roles such as collaborative working and change management. Many new technical skills had become important in area’s such as Information Assurance. Thus a flexible and agile approach was needed as often people were part of different teams or embedded in business units as part of a matrix working style.  This meant there was a need for cpd and lifelong learning to adapt and change to the needs of jobs and organisations. People needed to take a broader responsibility in leadership to align services to organisational values and priorities. There was a culture of shared services and national procurement. Many staff were seconded or moved so necessary to do scenario planning on ‘what if’ situations so could adapt to new circumstances quickly if necessary.  We needed to think like the customer.  It was important to have skill sets that could be used in different roles and bear in mind disaggregated staff. Networking was important, but not just within the profession, but also outwith it to those who could influence and inform wider agendas of which the service was part.  It was necessary to take risks, and to have a Plan B.

John MacColl –

Noted that academic libraries had a conservative culture and that despite the digital age there was still high importance on the library as physical space. Emphasis on giving good quality study space with long opening hours and self-issue at unstaffed times. The library was a provider of learning materials, many of which could be accessed digitally from anywhere. Expertise had been developed in electronic environments and issues relating to that had led to things like SHEDL. The library was a sustainer of collections, it could no longer hope to be complete in everything, but it was still important that it be seen to embody the knowledge of each domain it served and also to collect its own material internally through repositories as this fed into both wider reputation and intellectual property rights of the institution. The library was also important in terms of preservation of holdings and in terms of institutional brand where it was often a focus point as a service that served everyone. Some libraries also had very historic or distinctive buildings that acted as a draw and / or wonderful collections which also fed into promoting the uniqueness of their own university outwith the institution. So despite pressure on costs and staffing academic libraries were still important.

Questions

Perhaps the most interesting of these related to the use of ‘library’ and ‘librarian’ as a term and whether it was felt to be a help or a hindrance in service provision and whether it was still current helpful terminology.  Of a straw poll about a third of the room had some mention of librarian in their job title, the rest did not. However there was no overwhelming agreement on whether the term was a good thing as a universal known trusted brand value or a bad thing as a limiting factor in people’s minds of what we did. Several people acknowledged they had in fact changed their minds on the subject multiple times down the years. So it remains a fluid debate.

Comment

I think the most interesting thing for me was comparing and contrasting the views of the Speakers as they were based on their own sector knowledge and experience.  It was interesting to note that law librarianship was very much the middle ground between the three sectors represented. In law libraries there is lots of electronic provision but still physical libraries are still important too as many older and / or more esoteric materials aren’t available in digital format or affordable that way, and as often as not the physical space is still called the library (despite a move away from this several years ago, but it seems to have returned). The academic library context was far more traditional where buildings and collections have pride of place still. Whereas in the government context physical libraries had disappeared and the knowledge and roles of information specialists were embedded and often disaggregated in very differently called teams across government and concentrated on the government digital agenda.

I also found myself grinning when the importance of drinking a lot of coffee if people you want to nab are in common area's making some was discussed.  I suspect there is a high prevalence of folk who take advantage of  people who happen to be in the lift or at the water machine or making a coffee as a way to oh so casually 'nab' people.  Not something that can be diarised or planned, but it certainly can cut a lot of corners and come in very useful when the opportunity arises.

Musings on The Library Leadership Reading Group

The Conference

I was sorry to miss the CILIP Wales Conference this year, my kind of thing, I like anything professional development orientated in theme. The Conference was themed around leadership this year. So I did the normal – read all the tweets, had a look at all the presentations available on the website… Usually that’s as far as it would go.

The Afterlife

However this particular conference outlived its normal boundaries when Jo Alcock came up with the notion of a library leadership reading group reading through various leadership texts and articles and convening to discuss by Twitter of an evening.  See her blog post outlining how this works.

The Discussion

Various folk joined up for this initiative, myself included, first text was selected (Leadership and the New Science), and the first discussion was held. As a text overall it perhaps wasn’t doing all that much for many of us. It certainly had far more particle physics and chaos theory than I would normally have expected! But the general discussion on it, and on issues arising off it, was interesting. See Jo’s storify post for some highlights.

Text two was Primal Leadership, discussed earlier this week, a very different approach to the subject concentrating on emotional intelligence, how people learn and develop skills, and relationships. This text went down rather better in the main.

Variety

What I like about the Reading Group is the variety in what we read and in the views expressed.

There are things on the crowdsourced list I’ve never heard of, things I’ve read and enjoyed years ago, things I’ve meant to read but never got round to. Also things left to myself I know I wouldn’t go anywhere near. I fully expect to find things I really like, things that I really don’t, ones that make little impression.

Similarly the viewpoints expressed sometimes converge, sometimes challenge, often offer different perspectives because the folk who participate will change depending on who can make it and because we all do wildly different jobs in different places and subjects. It makes it rather fun.

Sourcing Texts

My usual approach once the group has selected what next is to check the various libraries I’m a member of first. If they don’t have then I source a very cheap secondhand copy of whatever is being discussed book-wise through the likes of Amazon Marketplace or AbeBooks. For books there’s six weeks between discussions, for articles a fortnight. Next text chosen at end of each session.

Keeping it all together

To be perfectly honest I prefer to just make notes as I read and then if I wasn’t much fussed by a text it shunts directly into the charity shop (alas New Science!!). The notebook will have anything I want to retain from all the texts, or remember for the Twitter discussions re. Basically one notebook keeps it all together in one place, which is more useful for me, and will help as texts accumulate. I also find it fairly important to just get ahold of and start whatever we choose directly after the last discussion before I forget or get diverted to other things and thus suddenly find myself wincing at calendar and doing a last-dash inelegant attempt the day before to get through it!

Next reading

The next text to be discussed is an article on Developing Core Leadership Competencies for the Library Profession which is freely available, it’s being discussed on 15 October at 7pm under the normal #llrg hashtag.

Congregational Libraries to Police Archives - Edinburgh Doors Open Day 2012

Last weekend was Doors Open Day in Edinburgh

 I spent an afternoon wandering around four buildings, mostly chosen for geographical proximity, and a geographical area I hadn’t covered before, and being close to my main target of the day, the NMS Collections Centre.

I thus found it extremely amusing to note that distinct libraries, archives and research activities were unexpectedly part of most of them.

South Leith Parish Church

Looks ‘normal’ looking straight down the church.

 But if you turn your head to the left within it from the central aisle you suddenly see the library corner.

Full of everything from religious texts to the works of Alexander McCall Smith.

High concentration on children’s materials, and a lot of audio material.

An everyday congregational library to serve the needs of a church community.

It made me smile.



Parish Newsletter section discussing Library



Leith Town Hall & Sheriff Court

This is now a working police station, so we got shown the Old Council Chamber, briefly taken through the police station which is the old Sheriff Court, and down to the 1870 prison cells by police officers working there (not your normal Doors Open Day volunteer guides!). 



Doors Open Day visitors perambulate around the cells



Cells are not in use for prisoners anymore.

However, I did note all the cells had become somewhat unusual archive storage instead.



Notices on cell doors re Major Incident Archiving Team



View through cell door to archive storage boxes inside

National Museums Scotland Collections Centre in Granton

Well this is the reserve collection of NMS and also the working space for a vast amount of technical departments.

So the Library proper is within the NMS proper in Central Edinburgh, (see my previous blog post re), but a lot of research activity gets carried out on the Granton site.

Trinity House Maritime Museum

This did not have a library, plenty of bookcases mind! It is certainly a large collection, but about the nautical heritage of Leith, part of Historic Scotland. It houses paintings, objects, written material amongst it.

Amusement

So all in all in an afternoon I found a congregational library, police archives, and a lot of research capability and output.

The fact that I wasn’t even trying to go anywhere specific with a library or archives focus for once does illustrate the sheer diversity and volume of libraries, archives, and research collections.

CILIP Big Day 2012 – Newcastle City Library Tour

A tour of Newcastle City Library was an optional extra after the main programme of the day.



View from above looking down to ground floor



Partnerships

One of the things that struck me most about this particular tour was the sheer level of partnership working, externally and internally. Externally e.g. with the British Library on specific initiatives, from the exhibition on Dickens and the North East on level six to the preparations for an IP Centre further down. Internally with shared services (e.g. job centre) and using the library to promote and facilitate other local government initiatives (e.g. lending electricity monitors).

Accessibility

The other thing that struck me was just how inclusive and accessible it was – from staff positioned on the main door to help guide people where they wanted to go through to open-plan spaces with a lot of fairly low height and very open shelving and displays, lots of colour zoning, and visibility throughlines from wall to wall. Clear sightlines and passages through to everywhere interconnected by staff on the floor or pods rather than behind desks.

The passes the staff wore around their necks that allowed them to communicate directly with each other were also interesting, no phones going off, phonecalls directed to backoffice staff not in the main space. That really reminded me of a corporate sector approach.

Above all everything about the library is very visible, and that makes it easy to navigate.

Overall Musings on CILIP Big Day 2012

What I’ve done with the rest of my CILIPBD12 posts is just try and scribble down the main content of what was said by all the main speakers, and what happened in the other segments, without making any comments on it.

So, for this one post, some comments just picking up on small pieces of the day and some general reflection on.

#CILIPBD12

I was amused to note, as often happens, while part of it before and after, I opted out of the twitterstream on the event as soon as I physically arrived and didn’t go back to reading everything I missed till I was on the train home.  I could have tweeted throughout, but I’m a lot faster just doing human recorder into my notebook and then typing everything into one place coherently after.  I love following conferences and events on Twitter, but it can be a bit bit-y and frustrating and involve huge amounts of folk  saying the same sentence at times. If I’m there physically I just concentrate on that and blog it later. Lot kinder to folks twitterfeeds that aren’t interested, less invasive for me too. I find writing and listening or talking easy, listening and participating and tweeting simultaneously hurts my brain more over long periods(!).

Newcastle



Folk from near and far!



It really was lovely to bring a big CILIP event to the North East, got to catch up with a lot of old friends, it opened it up to lots of different folk as being able to attend, and the enthusiasm for having it there was great. There was a huge diversity of folk from different parts of the UK, I was most amused to be sitting beside Scots, Yorkshire, and London folk in the middle of the North East (plenty of them about too!!). It also felt oddly ‘local’ to me, I’m Glasgow and fairly insane, so Newcastle to me is a bit like popping round to the local shop.

Bravery and Standing Up for what you believe in

Some of the speakers in particular were giving no-holds-barred performances. Ged Bell was saying a lot of things that he would have been totally aware were not likely to be popular in places, but he said them because he believed them and was willing to debate it. Phil Bradley, again, went for the barnstorming ‘this is what I fundamentally believe’ approach. They were saying very different things to the same audience on the same subject (volunteers). But I thought Ged Bell was brave in particular saying it to that audience, regardless of what you thought or didn’t about the content of what he said.

Fascination

My favourite slot of the day was Penny Wilkinson. Basically because she was talking about lots of things that always fascinate me, I love all the career development stuff and the reasons why people choose different directions, make certain choices. So the things she said that particularly interested me was that she wanted a strategic role with a bigger impact, that a key thing was to do things that you were proud of (mental note to self, this could work well with selecting Chartership evidence etc – what are you proud of, can you evidence and use that). I really liked her discussion of leadership attributes in the charity sector and how it had changed too.

Vibrancy

The sessions on digital access were mostly about bringing together and discussing themes in a range of current initiatives and new developments that have capacity to be game-changing or triggers for the sector to improved service levels and new ways of delivering. I heard about things I knew about, and things I didn’t at all. Some of it was fairly sector-specific in major impacts, some of it was a lot more widespread. But mostly I was thinking just bringing together and giving short introductions to lots of these things demonstrated vibrancy and enthusiasm, a hunger for new frontiers as well as the existing.

Places You Can Go

What caught my attention most in Lord Shipley’s speech was about public libraries as free places you can (within reason obviously!) do as you like in and places you can go. I totally believe in that, in my student days I had a flat with no heating one year, in the Aberdonian winter I used to stay in Aberdeen Central Library till closing time an awful lot in the evenings, reading or studying, for free, not involving spending money. It was a major blessing.  When I had a few months unemployed after university I also lived in my local library a lot, a day where the most exciting thing is Neighbours is on at lunchtime and then repeated is not a great day, if that’s every day then  the library is a wonderful place. Somewhere to go, that is free, where you can do things.

The End Results Matter

I liked what Phil said about the need to get people to look at the end result of what libraries contribute to individuals and communities.  Sometimes an awful lot of the conversation seems to be about running costs, the inputs not the outputs. The inputs can be extremely simple to calculate in monetary terms, calculating the results and what they are worth (and what would be the cost of not doing it) has always been a problem area.  That’s the same actually no matter what sector you’re in, in my corporate sector it’s exactly the same. Yet as various speakers alluded to, there is certainly a move towards trying to measure intangibles (e.g. well-being) a lot more in a statistical manner.

Encouragement and Risk

I really liked the title of the CILIP Qualifications video, CILIP Qualifications: Celebrating Success. Because that is incredibly important in giving people support and encouragement to do things that they want to do but are hard, take time. It’s good to support each other and celebrate. I liked what Emma said about taking opportunities that come up, to be brave and challenge yourself. I liked what was coming across from a number of participants in this part of the programme about personal journeys and developing networks that support you and give access to new chances and challenges. I liked that for the first year we brought so many people together who had done the range of qualifications, and that Qualifications Board were out in force to see how much their qualifications meant to people and how pleased they were to have gained them.

Professional Knowledge and Skills Base

One Glossy Brochure!

Proper post on this soon by itself I suspect. But as one of the Future Skills Project Board that developed it I would just say that it was lovely to have it launched, it has gone beyond us now and that’s a nice thing. There was a glossy brochure in CILIP September Update talking about it, but go look at it in full on the website if you’re a member (and you can even buy it for £25 if you’re not for individual use). The best thing that can possibly happen with it is that people and organisations adopt it and use it and tailor it to help them plot their own development wants and needs, to plug gaps, to assess ability level, to see area’s to develop towards moving into specific jobs or sectors. It’s a tool, it’s the content of the Library, Information and Knowledge domain today.

Any Library New To Me Is Fun

I go and visit all different types of libraries when the opportunity arises.  There were tours of Newcastle City Library (venue for the event) on offer at the end of the day and a lot of folk went on them.  There’s always things to learn and appreciate just walking round and comparing and contrasting to what you’re used and listening to someone telling you what they’ve chosen to do and precisely why they went down that path and what the result has been. I know from various folk I was talking to that they really enjoyed the tours. The feel I most got from the tour was of the utter visibility and access in the library, sightlines from wall to wall and floor to floor, hugely visible from outside, staff performing a guiding function getting people where they wanted to go and situated on the floor not behind desks.

A Smooth Operation



CILIP NE Branch helping out as guides



I’m well used to the efficiency with which CILIP can run big events, but bearing the occasional glitch, which can happens in any kind of event, it was a really well run event of a lot of speakers, a lot of presentations, the AGM and tours to all fit into the one day.

That it worked so well is made up of a lot of individuals and a lot of planning and it went very well.

CILIP Big Day 2012 - Celebration of Achievements and Close of the Day

Celebration of Achievements

This was a joint operation in hosting terms between Annie, Kath Owen (Chair of Qualifications Board) and Phil.

The work of the Qualifications Board was introduced. They assess around 300 portfolio’s annually between all the CILIP qualifications, speak at events, do training, mentor. 

The new PKSB (Professional Knowledge and Skills Base) was discussed (leaflet on in all members September CILIP Update).

This year an invitation to the Big Day had gone out to all recent successful Chartership, Certification and Fellowship candidates at the event planning stage. Candidates for qualifications put together portfolios, reflected on experience, improved performance against rigorous criteria to be the best they could be providing the best service.  Since last year 148 people had Chartered, 77 done ACLIP, 4 Fellowship, 15 Revalidation.

Annie introduced a new short film entitled CILIP Qualifications: Celebrating Success that talked about the value and worth of undertaking CILIP qualifications.

All the recent new MCLIPs and ACLIPs present were then invited to go up and receive their Certificates and be congratulated.  Emma did a short speech on behalf of them talking about the amount of work, and how it put them in good stead to develop as professionals. She talked about the importance of taking opportunities that come up, to be brave and challenge yourself. Thanks were given to mentors, Twitter support etc. Emma has blogged her #NLD12 thoughts since.

Kath then talked about the Fellowship process and the criteria for successfully gaining this including substantial contribution to the profession, commitment to CPD. She emphasised it was not for the great and the good pre-retirement after they’d written lots of books. It was recognition of what individuals had done and achieved, of commitment and contribution.

Citations were then read out of what each new Fellow had done individually to merit Fellowship and those present came up to receive their Certificates.

Next there was the award of Honorary Fellowships. Honorary Fellowships were not applied for by the individual themselves but were a way for CILIP to honour distinguished members of the profession and people who had done significant advocacy work.  Citations were read out for each and those present came up to receive their Certificates and do a short speech of acceptance. [This year’s Hon FCLIPs are listed in September CILIP Update with short citations].

Last Award of the day was a new award, the CILIP Mentor of the Year Award sponsored by Biddy Fisher. Kath talked through the role of mentors and other unofficial networking support and the huge role this played. The winner was Jill Young, as nominated by Bethan Ruddock. A short citation was read out.

Close of the Day

This being the end of formal business for CILIP Big Day 2012 John Dolan as Leader of CILIP Council made closing remarks and gave thanks to all the people who had helped to make the day such a success including the core organisational team from CILIP, members of CILIP North East Branch, Newcastle City Libraries and the staff of Newcastle City Library, and many more.

Everyone then dispersed towards drinks upstairs, tours of Newcastle City Library that had been arranged, transport home, or the pub!